Jennifer Hazard is amazing. She amazes me as the social media expert at Islandport Press. I know very little about social media, but I’ve learned a lot from Jen, who handled that task for promotion of my book “A Life Lived Outdoors.”

But where Jen really amazes me is in her columns about family and fun. For a while she was writing for the Lifestyle section of the Portland Press Herald. Her husband has encouraged her to keep writing. Thankfully, she did.

Jen’s blog, Cute Potato, focuses on fun things for families to do in Maine. Her March 27 column, for example, features a visit by Girl Scouts to Wilbur’s Chocolates in Freeport. Man, I wish I’d been on that trip! Wait ‘til you see the photos.

You can, of course, follow her on Twitter too. But I don’t Twitter. Or is that tweet?

Jen’s website offers access to her columns titled “Meet the Hazards: parenting trials and errors – on the road.” I really enjoyed her March 14 column about a trip to Paris. Here’s how it begins:

Last March, I took an unforgettable 40^th birthday trip to Paris with my husband, Ted. I dreamed of traveling to the city ever since I started studying the French language in 7^th grade. But, tant pis, life got in the way. It was hard to justify a European vacation during the rigors of graduate school, or when we moved to Maine from New Jersey, or after experiencing back-to-back pregnancies. However, as I approached 40, a trip to Paris made sense. What better way to celebrate, than to go on a trip I’d been wishing for since age 13?

I was sitting in the audience at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism recently, when a new ad was shown featuring Jen and her family, walking on a Maine beach. The ad will be aired out of state to lure tourists our way. Seeing the ad reminded me of her story of noticing that tourism ads didn’t feature families. She contacted tourism officials, who promptly recognized the need and put together a video of Jen and her family that has been on the Visit Maine website for the last year. Now they’ve turned it into a TV ad.

Even those who don’t have kids will enjoy Jen’s columns. I sure do.

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